The Power of Relationships and How God Uses Them for His Good! by John Cleveland
Hi all. Just wanted to share a quick story validating how our human interconnectedness matters, and how the Lord uses our relationships for His good. I know we all know this, but sometimes stories help turn that head knowledge into heart knowledge.
About 7 years ago I had an engineering student from the University of Dayton co-op with me at work. He spent 3 months working as part of my team on one of the projects we were building. He is first generation American as his parents were immigrants from Poland. His dad is a track-hoe operator. They are not wealthy. The young man is name is Pawel Wilisowski. Pawel and I really hit it off. I loved his passion, heart for other people, and curiosity to learn. His mind was a sponge. Our conversations often ventured beyond the job and work. We discussed all sorts of things. Wise money management (I gifted him my Dave Ramsey book The Complete Guide to Money), finding purpose and meaning in life, the blessing of family and friends, and faith. Pawel graduated and moved back to Chicago where his parents live. He began his career in large scale commercial and industrial construction (he currently is an engineer on a data center project in Wisconsin). A year or two later he emailed me and said he was going to be in Dayton and would love to buy me lunch. We had a great time catching up, and during lunch I told him about my 2022 trip to Mozambique and all about SAM Ministries. For the past several years he hasn’t made it back to Dayton, but he still emails me a life update once a year. He’s engaged to a young lady named Sarah (they marry next month) who is in medical school and currently applying for her residency program.
This past spring Pawel emailed me and said that he was training to compete in a triathlon in Chicago this summer. He wanted to incorporate a fundraiser into his triathlon, and decided to bike, swim, and run in support of SAM Ministries Steps to Stop Hunger Feeding Program. He remembered hearing about SAMM from our conversation years earlier during that lunch, and the Amelia Walk we do in Piqua each fall to support this program. He decided that was his “cause”. He completed his triathlon this past Sunday in just under 3 hours. In the process he raised around $1,200 for Steps to Stop Hunger. Not bad for a kid in his mid-20’s. Below are a couple pictures of Pawel taken last Sunday.
Again, just wanted to share this story which demonstrates the power of relationships, and how God uses them to support His work and His will. We never know how a conversation we might have today will bear fruit years from now. How our message might be filed away in someone’s heart to be remembered at some future time. Today it might be a kid in his mid-20’s raising $1,200. Tomorrow it might be an elderly couple leaving an endowment through their estate. It all matters at the end of the day, and you never know who will be inspired through our relationships. Hope you all have a great rest of your week. Thanks for reading!
PS: Pawel has an open invitation to join me on any of my trips to Mozambique. I hope he and Sarah take me up on it in the future!